Companies and other entities (generally referred to herein as “customers”) are heavily dependent upon telecommunications services. A typical customer may purchase telecommunications services from one or more service providers. Each service provider may offer a variety of service plans, each having different rate schedules depending on different characteristics of individual communications. As an example, a customer may purchase international long distance services from a service provider, and may have some rates for certain types of calls negotiated by agreement in a rate schedule. Other types of calls may have rates that are specified in service guides or rate tables published by the service provider. A typical large customer's relationship with such a service provider may involve 50 or more rate schedules.
Further, a customer may have a large number of different accounts (e.g., associated with different divisions or groups within the company), where each account is responsible for paying for its associated telecommunications charges. Many large companies have hundreds of different accounts. Each account may include dozens of individual telephones or calling cards, each of which may be involved in calls subject to the customer's contract with the telecommunications service provider. The customer may pay thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars each month for the telecommunications services. The total bill is calculated based on the services providers' application of the rate schedules to each individual call. Unfortunately, many (if not most) bills are inaccurate. A seemingly minor misapplication of a rate schedule that assesses an extra dollar to certain types of calls can result in an overall error totaling hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Billing discrepancies often occur and are difficult to identify, particularly where the calculation of billing rates is complex. Many customers lack either the resources or the expertise to identify such billing errors, and therefore often overpay for services. Further, even when a customer is able to identify an error or discrepancy, it can be difficult for the customer to prove the error or discrepancy to the service provider with sufficient detail to secure a refund or credit.